Counting in Afrikaans is mostly a matter of learning about twenty building blocks and then one rule that recombines them. That rule is the headline of this page, and it trips up almost every English speaker on day one: for the numbers 21 to 99, the unit is said before the ten, glued together with en ("and") and a pair of hyphens. So 21 is een-en-twintig — literally "one-and-twenty". Once that inversion clicks, every number from 21 to 99 falls out of the same little machine. The rest — hundreds, thousands, millions — stacks on top in a predictable way.
The foundation: 0 to 12
These you simply memorise; there is no pattern to derive them from.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nul | een | twee | drie | vier | vyf | ses |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sewe | agt | nege | tien | elf | twaalf |
Ek het sewe rand in my sak.
I have seven rand in my pocket.
Daar is twaalf eiers in 'n dosyn.
There are twelve eggs in a dozen.
The teens: 13 to 19
From thirteen on, the teens are formed by adding -tien ("-teen") to the unit. They are regular except that you should note the predictable spellings.
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dertien | veertien | vyftien | sestien | sewentien | agtien | negentien |
Watch dertien (not "drie-tien") and veertien (not "vier-tien") — these two flatten the vowel, just as English does in "thir-teen" and "four-teen". The rest are transparent: vyf + tien = vyftien, ses + tien = sestien.
Sy word volgende week dertien.
She turns thirteen next week.
The tens: 20, 30, 40 …
The round tens take -tig ("-ty"), again with the same two irregular stems showing up.
| 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| twintig | dertig | veertig | vyftig | sestig | sewentig | tagtig | negentig |
Note the irregulars to memorise: twintig (not "twee-tig"), dertig and veertig (the flattened der-/veer- stems again), and especially tagtig for 80, which is not "agt-tig". The others are regular: vyftig, sestig, sewentig, negentig.
My oupa is tagtig jaar oud.
My grandfather is eighty years old.
The crux: 21 to 99, unit before ten
Now the rule that defines Afrikaans numbers. For any number between 21 and 99 that isn't a round ten, you say the unit first, then en, then the ten, joined by hyphens into one written word:
unit + -en- + ten
So 21 is een-en-twintig ("one-and-twenty"), 43 is drie-en-veertig ("three-and-forty"), and 87 is sewe-en-tagtig ("seven-and-eighty"). This is the exact reverse of English, which says the ten first ("twenty-one"). German speakers will recognise the pattern instantly (einundzwanzig); English speakers must consciously flip it.
| Number | Afrikaans | Literally |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | een-en-twintig | one-and-twenty |
| 32 | twee-en-dertig | two-and-thirty |
| 43 | drie-en-veertig | three-and-forty |
| 56 | ses-en-vyftig | six-and-fifty |
| 78 | agt-en-sewentig | eight-and-seventy |
| 87 | sewe-en-tagtig | seven-and-eighty |
| 99 | nege-en-negentig | nine-and-ninety |
My ma word vanjaar vyf-en-veertig.
My mother turns forty-five this year.
Daar was twee-en-dertig kinders in die klas.
There were thirty-two children in the class.
The hyphens are not optional. The whole expression is written as a single hyphenated word: een-en-twintig, never een en twintig as three loose words. See punctuation for the hyphenation conventions.
Hundreds, thousands, millions
Above 99 the building blocks are honderd (hundred), duisend (thousand), and miljoen (million). You place the multiplier in front (twee honderd = 200, drie duisend = 3000) and then tack on the rest of the number.
| Number | Afrikaans |
|---|---|
| 100 | honderd (or een honderd) |
| 200 | twee honderd |
| 365 | drie honderd vyf-en-sestig |
| 1 000 | duisend (or een duisend) |
| 2 025 | twee duisend vyf-en-twintig |
| 1 000 000 | 'n miljoen (or een miljoen) |
Look carefully at 365 = drie honderd vyf-en-sestig: three hundred (drie honderd), then the inverted unit-ten vyf-en-sestig ("five-and-sixty" = 65). The hundreds are spoken left-to-right as in English, but the final two digits still invert.
'n Jaar het drie honderd vyf-en-sestig dae.
A year has three hundred and sixty-five days.
Die kaartjie kos twee honderd vyftig rand.
The ticket costs two hundred and fifty rand.
Ons gas-lys het meer as honderd mense.
Our guest list has more than a hundred people.
Unlike English, Afrikaans does not insert "and" before the final element (drie honderd vyf-en-sestig, not drie honderd en vyf-en-sestig) — the only en you hear is the one buried inside the unit-ten compound.
een as a number versus the article
One small wrinkle: the numeral een (one) is written without an apostrophe, while the indefinite article 'n (a/an) does carry one. Een appel stresses "one apple (not two)"; 'n appel just means "an apple". They are pronounced differently too, so the spelling distinction matters.
Gee my net een appel, nie twee nie.
Give me just one apple, not two.
Daar lê 'n appel op die tafel.
There's an apple lying on the table.
Common mistakes
❌ Sy is twintig-een jaar oud.
Incorrect — the unit comes before the ten: een-en-twintig, not 'twintig-een'.
✅ Sy is een-en-twintig jaar oud.
She is twenty-one years old.
❌ Ek het drie en veertig boeke.
Incorrect — the compound number is hyphenated as one word: drie-en-veertig.
✅ Ek het drie-en-veertig boeke.
I have forty-three books.
❌ Daar is agttig mense hier.
Incorrect — 80 is tagtig, an irregular form, not 'agt-tig'.
✅ Daar is tagtig mense hier.
There are eighty people here.
❌ 'n Jaar het drie honderd en vyf-en-sestig dae.
Incorrect — Afrikaans doesn't add an extra 'en' before the final part.
✅ 'n Jaar het drie honderd vyf-en-sestig dae.
A year has three hundred and sixty-five days.
Key takeaways
- Memorise 0–12 and the irregular stems dertien/veertien, dertig/veertig, and tagtig (80).
- For 21–99, say the unit before the ten, joined by en and written as one hyphenated word: een-en-twintig (21), drie-en-veertig (43), nege-en-negentig (99).
- The hyphens and the en are obligatory in writing — een-en-twintig, never three loose words.
- Build larger numbers with honderd, duisend, miljoen, e.g. drie honderd vyf-en-sestig (365); don't add an extra en before the final part.
- The numeral een (one) has no apostrophe; the article 'n (a/an) does.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Numbers: OverviewA1 — Afrikaans numbers are largely invariant, but compound numbers reverse units and tens — drie-en-veertig is literally 'three-and-forty' (43).
- Ordinal NumbersA2 — How Afrikaans builds 'first, second, third' — the -de versus -ste split, the three small irregulars (eerste, derde, agste), and how ordinals are used for ranks and dates.
- Telling the TimeA2 — How to read the clock in Afrikaans — including the half-system, where half ses means 5:30 and not 6:30, the single biggest trap for English speakers.
- Dates and the CalendarA2 — Days, months and dates in Afrikaans — days and months are capitalised, dates use ordinals and run day-month-year, op marks the day, and years are read in pieces.
- Punctuation and QuotationB1 — Afrikaans punctuation where it differs from English — the decimal comma, quotation marks, the colon and dash, and commas around subordinate clauses.